Sonar may be used to perform bathymetry, detect underwater hazards, find fish, and/or otherwise assist in navigation by producing data and/or imagery of a water column beneath a watercraft. Conventional sonar systems often include one or more independently operating sonar transducers with temporally and/or spatially non-overlapping beams arranged to help differentiate ensonifications and produce traditionally recognizable sonar imagery.
Conventional sonar systems typically physically separate their transmitter and receiver electronics from the sonar transducer assembly used to direct the ensonifications into a body of water. Such physical separation requires relatively expensive dual mode analog cabling (e.g., high transmit voltage/power and low receive voltage/power) to be run between the sonar electronics, which are typically placed above water and/or in a watercraft, and the sonar transducer assembly, which is typically operated submerged. Installation of such cabling can itself be expensive and must be performed carefully to minimize mechanical and electrical interference caused by operation of the sonar system and/or the watercraft to which the sonar transducer assembly is mounted. Such disadvantages multiply if additional sonar transducer assemblies are mounted to the same watercraft. Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology to provide compact yet feature-rich and flexible-use sonar systems, particularly in the context of providing relatively high quality sonar data and/or imagery using multiple sonar systems/transducer assemblies associated with the same watercraft.